Jump to content

Takkik

Members
  • Posts

    238
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Takkik

  1. Level 8 & 9 ciphers spells are pretty goods, it's the tier 7 that is completly crap. But There is lot of way to progress outside of leveling in a RPG : items, perks/feats (if the dev want they can make some abilities/passives as quest reward), you could get title, land etc... like becoming governor of an island, or be the commander of a fort. Progressing in a faction and unlocking gear & abilities specific to this faction. Same way they could introduce 'prestige classes'. Quest to become the apprentice of an animancer, be a pirate etc... A designer/GM have lot of way to reward a player even at max level. Getting to level 20 isn't the end of the world.
  2. there is different time constraints. Often I find that western dev use it badly. But the water chip in fallout 1 wasn't a big deal. You got a clear timer, you could push it back buy buying water supply. It was really a soft timer. I prefer the persona 3-5 or atelier: escha to logy way. You have a clear agenda/objective, up to you to manage your time between self improvement, progressing the objective, do side quests. It's more linear but it work. What I hate personaly it's obscur/hidden timed objectives. Another way to manage it in a 'soft' way: like mission. Make most dungeons (in a large sens, any 'enclosed' content) as a no/restricted rest content you must do in 1 go. If you can't and retreat/escape to rest, you must retry it from start. It's a way to offer challenge to player and push them to prepare well, manage better their resources without punishing them to much by 'cutting' content/reward if they fail since they can retry. Perhaps not appropriate to all game content, but can offer interesting challenges. A completly different way, a new way to do storytelling : Mount&clade: warband/crusader kings 2. PRocedural content. The game generate it's own content, so failing isn't a big deal because you don't miss anything since the game have 'unlimited' content. In the case of deadfire, you have a dynamic map, where factions can control/capture the zones, ports, fort etc... Failing to defend a port? pirate can capture it. For the player it's not a big deal since you can try later to capture it back. You have not the pressure to complet all the content, the risk to miss stuff. of course it's mostly unexplored territory and need to rethink how to tell a story, but it have it's own charm and could fit an open world like deadfire.
  3. They could have really killed the PC and put po2 xx years later where you play a new guy that discover he's the watcher reincarnation and get his memory back. Something like the ultima series, you play same guy over centuries during multiples games. Budgets etc have changed since old days, harder to create a trilogy now. Specialy when you use kickstarter. A game inspired by baldur's gate wasn't sure to succeed. And we never got baldur's gate 3. Always though throne of baal should have been BG3 (not sure what was intended), it feel so rushed with only combat horribly balanced and not much text/choices like in BG2 (still, I liked the story). People and times changes. Myself I'm not the same gamer I was before. Game dev have changed with bigger budgets and more risks. But one day... everything is possible today. Still waiting for a true successor to Neverwinter Nights. Just one of best tool set for creating adventures & dm. I don't know how dos2 toolset stand, but NWN 1 was good memories (even is the base game campaign was bad).
  4. Yeah, I miss this, and all the TSR/SSI games. But I don't think that will happen any more. Because people expect to level to 'end game' in 1 game. Baldur's gate series work but you have a slow leveling. Not sure people will like this slow leveling/pacing and have to play through multiple games. Because all games have a new system. Poe1, 2, tyranny etc... it's not only obsidian, but every game have it's own game rule, they change it each time. Since you're super powerfull at the end of a game, they must restart the leveling each time. And game system tend to be less robust than a pen & paper system that lived for years. Perhaps one day they will do it (or another game company), but then you have to design a robust system or be based on a pen & paper one.
  5. not sure about a level increase & power level increase. I would prefere a prestige classes system, where you can choose a specialisation (linked to your class or not) that progress from level 21-30 with new powers, not necessary more powerfull, but give you more diversity/specialised tools. Like the paragon/epic paths of d&d 4. I would like to see the trinket system introduced for all classes, extra classe customization through gear (cut content). More unique gears, some weapons don't have many options. Always love more uniques. Overall, I vote for more customization / diversity / cool stuff, over stupid OP abilities that break balance.
  6. You may not like what you will get. Tyranny had cooldowns. It made every combat into same monotony of rotating abilities for the win, exhausting every ability because there was no point not to. No system is perfect. POE1 per rest system : encourage you to use everything and rest between each (big)fight or you don't use most waiting for a challenging fight. POE1 per encounter system (martial classes): You just spam/use all your abilities since they return after each fight. POE2 per encounter : All abilities compete for the resources, so out of situationnal cases, you use the most cost effective resource you have. Tyranny cooldown system : You use the same skill rotation over & over. Per encounter system is nice but you need to have quality fights. All fights need to be interesting and push you resource wise. Since you can always use a meteor storm, a fireball etc... your best skills, a fight you can end in one skill isn't interesting and shouldn't be in game. Problem of tyranny & poe2 they have the same design of a per rest game. you can fight in a map and don't aggro all enemies around (sometimes just 2-4m in the fog) that mean less interesting main fight and lot of useless fights where you are vs 1-2 enemies. The attrition need to come in the length of each fight encounter, not in the number of fights you do between rest. PoE2 have same design problem than dragon age origins: you enter a room full of enemies, cast all your aoe spells and kill every one. All your mana/per encounter uses return, go to next room full of monster and repeat. It's not really interesting. The way to counter this, is not allowing player to exit combat mode between rooms. Like each map/floor are a combat encounter and you can only restore your resources when you clear the map (or a limited restore between each floor). If you exit early, the map populate with some random encounter (depending of time passing). That would allow designer to create each combat map as an attrition fight were each trap/small fight will drain your resources/wounds until you can take a rest. (short rest : you restore your resources and per encounter use. Long rest : you use the camp system, eat and restore every abilities but time pass and map can repopulate). My problem with poe2 (and dragon age origins when it was released), allow to use big spells like aoe every fight really break the balance I find if you don't have a good attrition system that limit their use. How the game work right now, I would design classes like the warlock in d&d 5. You have some cantrip/at will abilities/spells you character can always use. You have your per encounter abilities based on resources (like the 2 warlock spell slots) and then you have your most powerfull abilities (like high level spells of 8-9 lvl) that are per rest uses (warlock arcanums). They are your jokers you use only in tough fights. Remove camping/resting in dungeons, you must exit and some encounter can respawn (encouraging you to prepare well and do it in one go).
  7. Yeah, it's not a question of 'smarter' AI, but more challenging scripts. Get the feeling each enemy have a generic AI and nothing more. With all the selection of abilities, gears etc... you could create lot of behavior variations. If the enemy was using same tactics players use, and similar builds (that you can automate), you'll have a different difficulty. It's not complexe AI programming, it's just obsidian need to put someone behind each encounter, tweaking/designing the enemies and their AI to create an interesting challenge like if they were tweeking a player party.
  8. Personnaly I hate undroppable gears. I prefer the you get what you see. The problem is when they nerf abilities and items, that nerf enemies too. But if enemies where smart enough they could use all the abilities at their disposal (I don't know if enemies use bombs, scrolls etc... could be a way to give them more power.) When you see the party AI, they need to design some specific group AI for each encounter (or template) with the same tool. Time consuming but it would give you the feeling of enemies using team tactics. You could create groups with a personnality. About prebuff, that an issue with the spell system that could perhaps be fixed. You've already have the lifeguard spell you can use out of combat. They could design/redesign some spells that don't have a duration, can be casted out of combat and fire up with certain condition (blooded, hit etc...), they just need to make it these spells 'reserve' a spell slot that can't be recuperated until the spell is used/dispelled. So your casters and enemies caster could get some precast spells before combat start. I mean yeah I agree with you, a good AI is better, but a smarter AI need a better AI programmer, which might be hard to get Like evilcat said, the problem is the player optimise his party, use combo/synergies vs encounter that rely on brute force. As you progress you need to face encounters that use 'dirty' tactics, synergies etc... When you design a group of bandits, mercenaries etc... you need to design it as a group that work together, that will use some tactics and try to react to player own tactics. All the tools are here, design NPC/monsters with interesting set of abilities/equipments, design AI scripts (they must have something similar to the ai party system for NPC) and brute force: use their telemetry data and all the builds players create and design their encounter (composition & AI) to counter them instead of nerfing player buffind enemies. Of course it's easier to say and it's a processus that need time. But I hate artificial difficulty : give enemies buffs like armor/defense/accuracy. You can't make all encounters balanced for every build
  9. Personnaly I hate undroppable gears. I prefer the you get what you see. The problem is when they nerf abilities and items, that nerf enemies too. But if enemies where smart enough they could use all the abilities at their disposal (I don't know if enemies use bombs, scrolls etc... could be a way to give them more power.) When you see the party AI, they need to design some specific group AI for each encounter (or template) with the same tool. Time consuming but it would give you the feeling of enemies using team tactics. You could create groups with a personnality. About prebuff, that an issue with the spell system that could perhaps be fixed. You've already have the lifeguard spell you can use out of combat. They could design/redesign some spells that don't have a duration, can be casted out of combat and fire up with certain condition (blooded, hit etc...), they just need to make it these spells 'reserve' a spell slot that can't be recuperated until the spell is used/dispelled. So your casters and enemies caster could get some precast spells before combat start.
  10. Definitly improve AI. But I think Deafire introduced another problem with it's per encounter system (even if I like it) : Attrition fights are useless. Even Injuries are useless since it's easy to rest/remove them. One example of weird things happening in deadfire : A fight begin, kill a drake and couple of Xau.. (the kobold thing). Fight end, everything regen, I move 2m and a little kobold was left behind... and 4m in another direction another one. The aggro is one problem, less enemies make the fight easier and less interesting, fighting 2x1 small enemy is pointless. I think they should have designed encounter like in a tactical game, like Critical role fights : 1 encounter/map. You're attacking a fortress, each floor count as an ecounter and the fight only end if you kill everyone, escape, make them surrender etc... and you get a 'short' rest between each floor where you actualy regen your abilities. That introduce more interesting way to play with encounters and AI(scripts). In the case of the fortress, when a fight begin guards will not stay without moving, they will gather to the commotion aera. Some will stay behing to guard specific important aera. Some enemies will try to escape the map and bring back reinforcement from other levels etc... That can introduce far longer fights where attrition is a thing forcing player to escape or using different tactics, moving in the map etc... If the player escape the dungeon, each hours before the player return the enemy will reinforce, heal, be ready for the player. Need to design dungeon in a way the player need to do it in a go and be prepared for it or each time player escape they will be ready for is return (when applicable). Even if I enjoy lot of RPG, I would prefer a class less, level less system, based on skills and equipment. Leveling and the power grow that follow is artificial in my opinion and make too much content obsolete (and auto scaling kinda defeat the point of leveling in first place). Smaller increase in power, where the characters progress throught the abilities they unlock and their gear. Less abrupt power curve is easier to balance I think.
  11. hope it's a bug, because all rogue abilities do some affliction, you need affliction for sneak & deathblow, so INT help you, but not if you use any DOT? They fixed invisibility but broke dot... Why we can't get any accurate patch notes and have to discovert this by ourself (if this is not a bug) ? Each time a dev modify the code, he need to write down his modifications!
  12. Sneak, deathblow or backstab don't work with spells but some people thing it's the case (saw it in some youtube builds). Only assassin subclass add a bonus to spell, perhaps it is what the OP talk about.
  13. That would not make the skill more usefull, but just mandatory to take. I hope they will refine the enchanting screen soon, I don't understand why they didn't made more clear wich enchants are exclusives. That just force you to save before any attemp to enchant and reload if you don't like the result, annoying I find. With the current limited supply of unique weapons for some categories, I would like to see generic enchantment back (liked it in poe1) so if you don't find an unique weapon you like you can craft something better than just a standard weapon. In the futur, be able to enchant any items (accessories etc...) could be great too.
  14. I agree, with one proviso: the same source of Inspiration shouldn't stack. If it did, and 1st level monk could immediately jump to Swift for 3 power, for instance. I think it'd be okay allowing two different sources to stack, however. If you don't add the duration (just make it so the longer duration stay), I'm not sure it's OP to allow the monk to use 3 mortification for 10 sec of tier 3 dex inspiration. And that even give player more options on how he use his abilities. That would allow player different ways to get access to highter tier of inspiration. Perhaps it could be applied to afflictions too, but it already upgrade on a critique.
  15. the most annoying thing is that game mechanics haven't be tested enought when you see all the nerf that happen and some change like removing full attack from charge. Same for bugs related to abilities, they could have been tested during a spoiler free beta (and bug like invisibility and dot was reported during beta I think). There is problem with the inspiration/affliction too. Nice system but need more work (like brilliant). All these things could have been tested in a spoiler free environment, like some sort of arena. Let's players fighting in arena, toying with builds etc and get tonne of telemetry datas. The game will follow the exact same process of poe1 and the 2.0/3.0 will be a very different/more robust game mechanism wise. I prefer deadfire system, but if they change the mechanics each time they throw away all the balancing of previous game and every time we will get a balancing mess at release. In my opinion Obsidian should develop a good and robust RPG system they can just use/adapt for all their games so they don't have to go through the same process of refining their game mechanism at each release.
  16. As far as I know only chanter was able to get it at pl7 (the only t3 inspiration you get this late?) but instead of reworking the tier 3 int, you just downgraded the spell. So now it's impossible to get this inspiration? That expose a problem with the inspiration(and affliction) system, they are not really balanced and need some rework. The t3 INT (brilliant) is op, but a t3 dex is meh. Perhaps perception buff are in the middle? example 'Deleterious Alacrity of Motion' wizard spell : getting a dot for the swift inspiration don't feel a good tradeoff. Perhaps rework swift to give some action speed, or add action speed to the spell. But if it was brilliant for some dot, it would be a great bonus for a little tradeoff. Insp/aff don't stack, don't upgrade and sometimes cancel each other (like rogue persistant distraction). I'm not 100% sure, but I think if you have quick for 20sec and cast another ability that give you quick for 6sec(perhaps included with other buffs), your quick inspiration get downgraded to 6sec instead of keeping the longer duration. I just think the system could get some love to make it a bit more robust/balanced
  17. Valorous Echoes : the problem is that most class have some way to buff themself, you have better classes with aoe buff... But the cipher have only the meh wild leech to get some inspiration. And if you multiclass with a class like rogue that don't have inspiration it's a big loose because the cipher can't even boost one of the rare class that could use the spell because he can't self buff. Same problem with pain block. body attunement: it's a buff/debuff, problem now the debuff is worse than an expose vulnerability and the buff worse than a spirit shield. And the duration... what the point to cast the spell? It will be off before it make a difference. If keep like that it need to be downgraded to PL1. Wild leech : useless because it's random. Inspiration don't stack, if another character buff you before you use it you can get same attribut inspiration. Waste of time & focus. Soul A. : Perhaps introduce a dmg bonus, or effect when you're full focus? to encourage to build up instead of spamming? Tier 7 abilities : as MC it feel very trash tier. It's like all the good stuff was pushed to tier 8-9 No free spells : It's the only caster that don't get any free spells, that have perhaps the lowest selection of spell? and with the focus mechanic mean you just use same spell(s) over and over. Even in the first game I was just using the one spell that I liked. Most interesting but time consuming : adding 1-3 new unique spell (like SA) for base class and the subclass. Less stressing, like for priest, mix with some other class spells. Don't need a spell for all level, perhaps something like the trickster : PL 1, 3, 5, 7, 9.
  18. Backstabing isn't really about hiting someone in the back, because you've already have flanked that represent this. It's more about delivering a precision strike, aim for vital parts of the enemy. Light weapon are far better for this because it's easier to aim weal spot of armor. Backstab, even at 150% is suboptimal for dagger & co. For 3 pts (shadow veil + crippling strike) you're just better to spam 2x/3x crippling strike and take advantage of your fast striking. The extra dmg is less important than with 2 handed weapons. Dev need to adjust backstabbing so it can be interesting with all weapons. Adjust the bonus depending of the weapon, and perhaps an extra effect, like melee two handed have a lower dmg bonus but stun target, dagger do more dmg and add a bleed, stiletto extra penetration etc...
  19. It's Obsidian mistake to allow backstab with two handed. In every games backstab is often restricted to dagger like weapons. I've no problem with allowing two handed for rogue for sake of diversity and multiclassing, but they can make backstab work like Ring the Bell and have a different bonus depending the weapon. For sneaking, poison etc... weapons like dagger, stilleto should have an advantage. Not be mandatory, but more optimal. I know magic is op right now, but in a better balanced game I would love to see a magic ambusher passive that allow to use backstab, sneakattack & deathblow with magic. Only a small % bonus, perhaps restricted to touch/cone spells.
  20. I noticed all dots (even from abilities) are show as 0 dmg in the combat log. Rogue ability tooltip for dots are inacurate too since launch. They never show the scaling, lot of time the total dmg is wrong if it show at all. Toxic strike is said to build up dmg as time pass but you can't get the proper total dmg in the tool tip. I would love to know in the tool tip if the dot stack at all or not, if you can build up the dmg of a specific dot or just better to use another ability/item.
  21. nice job on fixing rogue invisibility & dot, but the unique Arkemyr invisibility spell is still broken and any dot remove the invisibility.
  22. I'll be happy with anything that make backstabbing with light weapons (rogue 'signature' weapons) more valuable. They buffed crippling strike & blinding strike but I hope ring the bell and whiterring strike will get some love too before final patch, because they are even less attractive now. EDIT: my bad, ring the bell was actualy buffed too with +25%. Sap too get +25%. The cost was decreased?(2 to 1?) So only withering strike need some love (decrease cost to 2 or have +45-50% dmg instead of 25).
  23. The one thing that bother me with backstab, is how it encourage two handed instead of dagger/stilleto. Since the beta you see build with arquebuse and other two handed weapons. They should change backstab to have a different bonus based on the weapon used. The lowest bonus for 2 handed, mid for most one handed and a hight buff for dagger, stilleto (rapier? Pistols?). BAckstabbing in my opinion is about precision stike, aim at the weak spot of your enemy, something hard to do with big weapons. About DOTs, most of them are pretty low dps divided in lot of abilities that don't self stack. Spamming ring of the bell with one handed don't increase the dot. I think we're far from apply dots, hide and wait for enemies to die. I would prefer to see them consolidate DOTS in 1-2 buff ability that apply a dot with all your attacks instead of 5-6 different active attacks & dots. Another problem with rogue choices/upgrades it's often about DOT or affliction. But there is a bug how affliction work, and often they cancel each other (like persistant distraction). Death blow is one of the rare DPS upgrade in the rogue tree. They should allow to stack different affliction of the same attribut, or keep track of each affliction source so they don't cancel when one effect wear off. example : you blind a target and you engage it with persistant distraction. The game keep track of both blind & distraction, but only blind is applied because it's stronger. If blind wear off, the distracted effect is used, but if you disangage when the enemy is still blinded, you remove the distraction (inactive) without touching the blind affliction (active). About shadow veil, I didn't tested everything, but didn't noticed a dot that break it. But an ability/item that create an AOE field will break the invisibility. The incandiary grenade initial aoe remove the invisibility, but when the AOE end, the burn dot don't break it.
  24. rogue invisibility fixed apparently, but not all invisibility. Tested with a certain unique wizard spell, dots break the invisibility. Look like they fixed gun critics too (-25% to -15%) attuned body cipher spell was nerfed, +2/-2 armor instead of +5/-5 and reduced duration (30 down to 15s). They could have reduced the debuf but keep the bonus, right now the spell buff you less than spirit shield that is a pl1 spell (and for 45s!). Not really happy with the reduced proc chance. That mean you go full critic or the items are useless. And even if you critic all the time, 10% feel very random. Never feel rewarding when things are totaly random. I would prefer active abilities instead, or something reliable. My main concern with how they tweak things : they tone down every thing to oblivion, reducing their impact in combat and the reward you get to find them. They buff enemies (accuracy, armor etc...) reducing the number of build you can really use (at least it's a risk when you buff enemies). With the increase of difficulty I'm waiting for better AI, more interesting/difficult encounter design, not making the game less fun to play. Wait & see.
×
×
  • Create New...